Hidden Song
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Bobby wasn't always a hunter. Sam and Dean find out the hard way that Bobby's past is catching up to them when Lucifer is broken free because of the angels. Now they have to deal with natural magic, angels, and having their surrogate father showing them up! Can Bobby reconcile with who he once was, or will Death have a new face? Possible Bobby/Luna in later chapters
1. Chapter 1

Dean and Sam thought they knew their Uncle Bobby, who was more like their father than John ever was.

That all changed when the angels started coming to Earth.

Sam and Dean ran around trying to stop Lucifer from rising, but failed because several of the higher angels lied to them and didn't tell them anything. The only angel Bobby liked at all was Castiel, and that was because he genuinely cared for the idjits.

So when he confronted the two idiots right after Lucifer came out of the pit, he started giving off major queues to Dean that something was very wrong with him. And bless his heart, Dean actually noticed!

He felt Sam grab him from behind with ropes that had been soaked in holy water and lined with salt, paralyzing the demon inside of him. Sam exorcised it and Bobby sagged in the hunter's arms.

"Took you idjits long enough to pick up on my hints," grumbled Bobby as he sat in the chair.

"How did you fight that demon off?" asked Dean, honestly impressed.

"I have a few tricks I haven't taught you idjits yet. Had to remember some of them after what happened to Karen, but no demon will ever get full control."

"What about the Micheal Sword?" asked Dean.

Bobby made sure there weren't any demons nearby before he pulled out a book.

"Ever since those seals have been breaking left and right, I had to go and dig something I never wanted to see the light of day again."

It was a book, but unlike any they had ever seen.

"Bobby...what is this?"

"A list. Of things you're better off not messing with," he said succinctly.

To be more precise, a list of magical things that only a wizard or someone who had magic could open, let alone read.

Bobby channeled just enough magic to open the lock, and he wasn't surprised that the boys had enough of magic themselves to read the first page.

"_The Compendium of Demonic and Angelic Symbolism?_"read Sam.

"Dammit... I always suspected you two might be able to read this, but to have it confirmed..."

"Bobby, where did you get this? And why are you surprise we can read it?"

"Because the only way you could get your hands on it is, let alone read this is if you have magic. Real magic, not that crap that the demons peddle," said Bobby flatly.

"Magic? Magic only comes from demons," said Dean.

"Not all magic. The thing is that those with real magic are taught a spell to erase memories and most of them can disappear on a dime to another state entirely with the right amount of practice. The ones hunters usually run across are those who are either smart enough to figure out how to make the black books work, or are born to magical families but unable to use it normally that make a deal. Nine times out of ten, it's the magically born who can't use it that hunters find."

"Bobby, what are you saying?" asked Sam. His opinion on the supernatural had shifted since he had just let Lucifer out. He could go into this with an open mind.

"I'm saying you two idjits are half-bloods at best, first gens at least. Meaning you have natural magic, not the demonic crap that gets peddled. Now shut up so I can look up the Micheal Sword!" barked Bobby.

The two wisely stayed quiet. Bobby finally found it, though how he knew Latin that well enough to translate the older form of it they had no idea.

"Here it is. 'Micheal Sword' is a term used to describe a vessel. It's not an actual sword at all, and I highly doubt an arch angel would drop his sword where a hunter could find it. And even if it was a sword, I'm betting that the demons would have grabbed it pretty quick."

"Wait, didn't Cas say that he was in a vessel?" asked Sam, recognizing the term.

"People possessed by angels are called vessels. They always have to get permission. Always. The only exception is if the angel jumps into someone who's pregnant. According to one of the earlier chapters if an angel possesses a pregnant woman, then they run the risk of being sucked into the kid instead and they have to live out a mortal life before they can return."

"Is that what happened to Anna?"

"That angel girl Dean took advantage of? Most likely."

"Bobby, how do you know about this?" asked Dean.

"I'll tell you two later. First we need to leave before more demons show up."

"A bit late for that, Bobby," sneered a woman outside. Fortunately Sam and Dean had already salted the windows after they exorcised Bobby.

"Get lost hell spawn. I'm not letting you anywhere near these boys again," snarled Bobby.

"You won't have a choice, hunter. Lucifer wants Sammy and he's going to get him," sneered the demon.

To the shock of everyone, Bobby reached into the same bag he had the book in (he had put it up before the demons had come in) and pulled out...a stick?

The demons all hissed at the sight of it.

"No! You can't be here!" said the demon in anger.

"Aquamenti Sanctus!" barked Bobby, aiming the sudden torrent of water on the demons in the door. They screamed in all out pain as the sudden stream of holy water hit them in the face.

Dean and Sam didn't need to be told, they grabbed their gear and headed out the door. Bobby said something else in Latin, pointing it at the Impala and they quickly found what he had done to Dean's beloved car when one of the outside demons touched the door handle and yelped as his hand caught fire.

Sam and Dean had touched it earlier, and they weren't harmed, so they could only assume it affected demons.

When they finally reached Bobby's scrapyard and made it into the panic room, Dean rounded on their father figure.

"Bobby, what the hell?"

"You want the full version or the cliff notes?"

"Full version."

"I'm a wizard. Have been since I was born, but I left their world after they tried to force me into a role I wanted nothing to do with after killing a warlock. So I fled to the States, changed my name and became Robert Singer. Then I met Karen and you know the rest."

"Why hide it?" asked Sam.

"I saw what over-dependance on magic does. Besides, it wasn't like I could use it willy nilly with that idiot John shooting anything supernatural he came across," said Bobby gruffly.

Sam snorted in agreement. If John had seen him using his powers, he would have shot him first and interrogated him after if he survived.

"But why hide it from us?"

"Habit mostly. But since you two are aware of what I am and not reaching for your guns, I can finally do this..." said Bobby, before he waved the stick ('Wand, you idjits!') and suddenly the chaotic mess of his house became much more ordered and clean.

Dean and Sam stared.

Bobby brought up his wards, designed to keep anything from the pit out of his house. Didn't stop Cas, who last they checked was dead.

The trio crashed while Bobby made sure his house and property became a fortress against intruders.

* * *

Sam and Dean woke to the smell of something they hadn't in a long, long time. Home-cooked breakfast.

Dean was the first to speak what was on their minds.

"When did you become Suzy Homemaker?"

He yelped when something hit him in the ass.

"What was that?"

"Stinging hex. Used to get idjits to shut up. Basically like a joy buzzer, only it can be used anywhere," said Bobby without hesitation.

"You are so teaching me that one," said Sam immediately.

"So this is where you vanished to," said Cas.

Bobby shot him a glare to shut him up, but Cas either didn't notice or likely, didn't care.

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you dare. I left that name behind a long time ago, and knowing those backwards idiots they'll still have it flagged," snarled Bobby.

"Harry..." started Cas, but was quickly silenced by Bobby.

He started putting the pancakes and other items on the table, ignoring Dean and Sam's curious looks. When he finally removed the silencing spell, Castiel gave him a look.

"Why do you not want them to know about your past?"

"That person died when I abandoned England. Besides, I'm not entirely sure that they haven't flagged it like they did that idiot who nearly destroyed them."

"You speak of their Taboo," said Cas.

Bobby nodded.

"I know angels aren't affected by the charm, but I don't want either of these two idjits picked up by the task force for saying the name because they learned it from you."

"You are aware that they are still looking for you. They have a bounty on your head, delivered alive," said Cas.

Bobby snorted, he wasn't surprised.

"What bounty?" asked Dean sharply.

"In England there is an entire hidden society of magic users. Bobby was the one who saved them from a particularly insane warlock, but the fact that he had been considered the protege of a noted pacifist caused them to turn on him. He went missing thirty years ago and the angels haven't been able to find him."

"Pacifist? More like a damn hypocrite. Tom Riddle deserved to die, not be redeemed and I would shoot his followers all over again for what they did," said Bobby.

"For the record, most of Gabriel's old garrison was rooting for you and not Dumbledore," said Castiel.

"Not surprising. Coincidentally..."

"He went below. Some of his activities were frowned upon in heaven, and one of the biggest tipping points against him was forcing you to live with your aunt. He did a lot to cover up the fact you weren't in a healthy living area for magicals," said Castiel blandly.

"Good riddance," said Bobby, his mood already improving with the knowledge his old headmaster never made it to heaven.

"As fascinating as this is..." said Dean.

Bobby looked at Castiel.

"Is there a taboo on the name?"

"It's covered by the fidelius. So long as they equate you with the person you were before, it should be fine."

Bobby looked at the expectant brothers, and sighed.

"Fine. Before I was Robert Singer I used to be known as Harry Potter."

Bobby gave them the gist of what his life had been like, and the two were properly appalled. Fortunately Bobby had long since implemented a simple safety measure against anyone looking for his old name.

He had cast a fidelius charm around it. The only one who could tell the magicals who Harry Potter had become was Bobby himself, and he preferred to forget about that part of his life.

Bobby was caught off guard when Sam hugged him when he told them about his life, and Dean quickly followed suit.

For the first time in a long time, Bobby let his defenses down. Sam and Dean were more than long-time hunters, they were his sons in every way that mattered. John had gotten so caught up in trying to get revenge for his wife that he had almost screwed up the boys too... if Bobby hadn't stepped in and gave them some stability.

"So what's the plan?" asked Dean, once the chick-flick moment was over.

"I'm calling in the goblins to make this place a fortress. It's past time I upgraded this place," said Bobby.

It was also way past time he got rid of the beard and showed how old he really was. He had once beaten Patrick, a fellow European witch to cut off several years and make him older than he was. All it would take was one game and he could be his real age again...he was actually ten years older than Sam and Dean.

* * *

Dean and Sam came back from a nasty run-in with Zachariah to find...someone roughly ten years older than them applying new paint in the kitchen.

"Who are you?" asked Dean, his hand on his gun.

The man turned around and the two nearly fell over in shock.

"Bobby?" said Sam in disbelief.

Bobby snorted, before he put his paint brush up and handed them both their own.

"The sooner we get this done with, the sooner I can get the grill going."

"What...how?" sputtered Dean.

"You two never asked me what my age was. One game with the infamous poker player and I'm old enough to be my own father without dealing with the idiots looking for me," said Bobby amused.

"Wow..." said Sam in shock, before he grabbed the brush.

"So how old are you really?"

"Going on forty-eight."

He had been seventeen when he had killed Riddle, barely eighteen when he had enough and fled to the States and lost deliberately to Patrick, and twenty when he met Karen. He had spent twenty years as Bobby Singer, and ten of them had been as a hunter. Though the past four had been particularly stressful.

It took them two hours to finish repainting the kitchen (Dean was thrilled with the new fridge, because it could hold twice as many beers) and another hour before Dean could move after eating most of the barbeque Bobby had made for them.

"Damn Bobby, where'd you learn to cook like that?"

"Practice," said Bobby amused. Sam was currently poking his brother with a stick.

Castiel appeared, looking rather tired. Bobby had keyed him into the wards after he made it angel-proof with help from Castiel.

"What's up?"

"Those above are taking note that Potter is resurfacing, and the demons are all talking about how Robert Singer is a wizard," said Castiel.

That had come as a total shock. Until that moment, Robert Singer was considered a mundane. Normally hunters barely knew of the magicals, let alone had any luck finding and hunting them. The idea that a magical became a mundane hunter and went after his own kind had come as a nasty surprise.

Especially since Bobby hadn't used magic in years, and they had no idea who he had been because of the charm.


	2. Chapter 2

Since Lucifer was looking for Sam, and Bobby was interested in getting used to his real age, Sam was left in charge of the house while Bobby went with Dean on a special case.

All signed pointed to something big, and worse, demons. With how recent Sam's addiction to demon's blood was, Dean was glad that Bobby was back on his A-game and they were leaving his brother behind.

"So Bobby...any ideas?"

Bobby was staring at a fire-red car that was completely untouched by the chaos around them, and he started to get a bad feeling about this one.

It wasn't until they found Ellen and he heard some of the signs that he had a decent idea of what was gong one.

"It's not demons...it's something much worse," said Bobby.

"What?"

"War. Specifically the personification of War, the horseman," said Bobby.

"Who is this?" asked Ellen.

"Bobby. He beat Patrick and got twenty-five years taken off his actual age," said Dean.

Ellen looked at him closely, and Bobby didn't even flinch when she started grilling him about details only he would know.

"Why now?"

"If we're dealing with Lucifer, we're going to have to step up our game. I ran into him before and lost, so I just reclaimed five extra years off my real age," said Bobby.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but you look good Bobby. A lot more relaxed than I'm used to seeing," said Ellen finally.

Bobby snorted.

"I'm a little over ten years older than the idjits."

Ellen's jaw dropped. She hadn't known he was that young.

"Could you two quit jaw-jacking and help us deal with whatever is out there?" complained the pregnant woman.

"We can deal with it right now. I can see from here the real culprit of this mess," said Bobby, giving an older looking gentleman with a rather thick ring on his right hand a look.

"What...me?" he said in surprise.

"Every horseman has a ring, and they all have thick white stones with a special sigil on the top. Death might have lost the stone to his, but the rest still have it. And you are wearing it right now," growled Bobby.

Dean and Ellen had War backed up. They trusted Bobby completely, he was a known research monkey. War tried to make it look like Bobby had suddenly become a demon, but they were more focused on him and not their fellow hunter.

And nothing War did to Bobby kept him from grabbing the ring off his hand while Dean kept him pinned to a wall.

The second it left his hand, you could feel something pass through the room and to the outside.

Walking outside, they found those everyone had assumed were possessed by demons coming out in confusion.

Rufus was skeptical about Bobby, but gave the same test Ellen had. Though Jo was worrying him with some of the looks she shot him. She was having trouble believing this was the same Bobby Singer that she knew and trusted.

* * *

The first Dean knew that something was off was when he woke up to a desolate room that hadn't been there the night before. Sam and Dean were alternating on hunts, so Bobby could teach them both magic. They both had decently sized cores, but in order to keep the angels from figuring out who Bobby was before, they had to do it carefully.

He had gone to some no name city and rented a room for the night.

And now he was dealing with some angel's twisted idea of a lesson. So what if he was Micheal's vessel? Did he look like he trusted Zachariah's lying mouth after what he pulled?

Dean felt like shit after his 'future' self got the drop on him.

"So let me get this straight. You broke off with Sam at River's Pass?" said Dean.

"I couldn't trust him."

"Okay, now I _know_ I'm in the wrong future. Sam wasn't with me when we took out War, and he sure as hell hasn't been going after any demon's blood after Bobby lit into him about the side effects," said Dean.

"What?"

"I took Bobby with me after he beat that poker-playing witch and got a little under half his years back from him. Bobby spotted War almost immediately and it took us ten, fifteen minutes to get his ring. And I know something is up because his house was destroyed and he has anti-demon wards all over that place," said Dean flatly.

His future self looked at him oddly.

"Bobby never beat Patrick. Hell it all went to shit about three months after River Pass."

"It's been two on my end, and Sam hasn't even thought of using his psychic powers," said Dean.

Not since Bobby told him that half of the crap he had done with his mind could be done with less trouble using a wand. All he had to do was rewire his first instinct to use his psychic power to using a wand instead.

Bobby found a spell to exorcise demons without having to resort to using demon blood to boost Sam's powers.

So the need for demon's blood had gone down to reasonable levels for his little brother. And that made both brothers very happy indeed.

"Wait, if Sam wasn't at River Pass and you never had the fight...why are you traveling alone?"

"Got any angel-proof rooms?" asked Dean.

"No, but maybe Cas can help."

Castiel took one look at Dean and said "You're in the wrong timeline."

"No shit Sherlock. That asshole Zachariah couldn't be bothered to get his facts straight when trying to force me to say yes," said Dean flatly.

"What do you mean Cas?" asked his future self.

"This is not your past self. He has a natural magic core, and it's starting to show signs of training," said Cas.

"Hold up. Natural magic?"

"There are two types of magic users in the world. The demon-deal and the natural. Natural means you're born with a core inside of you that produces magic. Signs include little things like floating a cookie out of a jar or changing someone's hair color. Demon deals are straight forward. You've dealt with enough that you don't need me to tell you about them," said Cas.

"So naturals aren't evil?"

"Most aren't. Just extremely lazy and overuse their magic."

Dean's other self relaxed at that news.

"It gets even better. I never have to fill the Impala up with cheap gas anymore. It's got a spell on the tank that fills it up without me having to stop...and it's been spelled so that demons can't touch her without screaming."

Seeing the look of surprise on his face, Dean felt vindicated for learning magic.

Putting that spell on his beloved car had made learning magic entirely worth it. Whatever Bobby did to his Impala to make it demon-proof, more so.

What Bobby neglected to mention was that it also allowed them to see hellhounds so they could run the damn things over.

Dean was about to head to the bathroom when he saw a familiar face.

"Is that...Harry Potter?"

"You know Potter? He's the best sharpshooter we have," said his future self.

Potter looked up and his eyes met with Dean. The bathroom could wait, he had a few questions that had always bothered Bobby but he had never waited to ask.

"So how did we meet?" asked Potter, taking a drag of his alcohol.

"In my time you're Robert Singer. You lost to Patrick and changed your name to escape the people looking for you."

Harry's eyebrows shot up in genuine surprise.

"I'm Bobby?"

"Yeah, and I have a few things I need to ask so he can put his mind at ease."

"Shoot."

Dean pulled out a notepad. On the third page were the questions that bothered Bobby.

"First off, did you ever marry Ginny Weasly?"

"I wasn't married to anyone. They practically shoved her on me. Then I found out she was cheating on me with Blaise Zabini."

"Next, what happened after you turned eighteen? Bobby said he left around that time because he couldn't take it anymore."

"I'm not surprised. It was around that time that I was forced to become the head auror and they were talking about making me Minister of Magic. I cannot tell you how happy I was when the world ended..." said Harry flatly. He shuddered at the thought of all the paperwork they had made him do.

"Third question, did you ever figure out what Dumbledore's final plan was?"

"Oh, I found out alright. It was a potion to make me more like him. Bastard had a horcrux in the sorting hat. People were so ecstatic about having him back that they seemed to forget the plan was to implant him in my body."

Harry's face turned dark.

"I showed them how I felt about that right around the time the world started to go to shit. Then I left and went to where the most action was to get away. Ended up traveling with Dean for a bit."

"Final question. Did you ever manage to keep the people who screwed you over from getting into your vaults?"

"That's a two parter. Yes I kept most of them out, but I had to transfer most of it to a separate vault to keep Ginny from getting her claws into after the divorce."

Harry looked at Dean.

"Now I have a few questions for you about Bobby. Did he ever find any peace?"

"He married Karen, but that was as close as he got before the demon possessed her. On the other hand, he said that he had a better life away from magic than any he had with magic. He only recently started to use it again."

"Did he ever take full control of his money?"

"He had it all transferred to a dummy account and then slowly siphoned it into a mundane bank under his new name."

"Did he have any kids?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but he said we were the closest things to his sons that he had," said Dean.

Harry nodded. That was all he needed to hear.

"Would you like to help me out with my current project?"

"What's that?"

"Breaking Castiel of his drug addiction. Nothing I've done seems to work," said Harry. He liked Castiel. His naïve nature amused him, and so did some of the mistakes he made concerning popular culture.

He was like a more tolerable, less annoying version of Ron, with all the smarts of Hermione.

Not that he cared for either of them since they had been on the 'lets stick Dumbledore in Harry's body' bandwagon. They had been part of the reason why he had wanted to leave in the first place!

It wasn't until they were ready to leave that Dean came up with a weird idea.

"Is there any way to take Cas back with me? Give him a fresh start?"

"You do realize if we did that then we would have to do the same for everyone else?"

"So? Future Dean is a dick."

"Point. Come on, I'll pretend I'm Cas while we make sure he at least has a chance to stop this nonsense from starting all over again."

"Fun," said Dean sarcastically. Harry smirked at him.

Harry convinced Cas to go into the last trunk he had left that had the room, which he shrunk to fit into Dean's pocket. Inside the trunk was a list of things that Dean's future self had dealt with, and several things to watch for.

Among them was a list of places each of the three other horsemen had been before Lucifer broke Sam and took him over. Harry had a feeling that those rings might be important, so he had tracked down their whereabouts. Too bad his Dean was a stubborn ass who refused to listen to him because he had magic.

Castiel pulled Dean away from Zachariah the moment he got back and Dean was just glad that the arrogant seraph hadn't gotten to him. Or noticed the new trunk in his pocket.

Dean was really glad that Bobby had enchanted the Impala to return to his salvage yard if Dean was away from it or said the password even from three states away.

* * *

"What's that in your pocket?" asked Bobby.

"Crap! Forgot about the trunk!"

Dean set the trunk down on the floor and Bobby broke the shrinking charm. Most of them were shocked when a second Castiel appeared, this one looked rather bloodshot in the eyes.

"You are a bigger ass than he was. Do you have any idea how much I hate being sober?" said Castiel irritably.

"Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass it was getting away from Zachariah?" countered Dean.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" asked Sam. This was not the Cas he knew.

"He's a bit of a drug addict. Zachariah sent me to some messed up future where you said yes to Lucifer and set the Croatoan virus loose, but not one that would be possible because of who Bobby is," said Dean, "But if you think that's weird, I have those questions you always wanted to know answered. Turned out Harry Potter was with Cas."

Bobby's eyebrows went up.

"You got them answered? So he didn't..."

"You were forced to marry Ginny and she ended up cheated with a Blaze Zabini, I think he said. You had to set up a second vault to keep her out of it, and Dumbledore's final plan involved a whore-crutch and putting him in your body..." said Dean, looking at his notes.

"Blaise Zabini? His mother was a black widow. Wait a damn minute, did you just say Dumbledore made a horcrux?" said Bobby irate.

"I have the memories of your future self. He put them in these vials, though I have a hard time believing this silver crap is actually memories."

Bobby brought out a pensieve, and they left the 'future' Castiel to sleep off most of the withdrawal symptoms left in the panic room. Then they dove into Harry's memories.

The second he saw that pile of paperwork, Bobby swore then and there he would never complain about being a hunter or dealing with the headaches the Winchesters brought with them again. Yes he lost his wife, but that was nothing compared to the absolute hell his other self had gone through because he had stayed.


	3. Chapter 3

Bobby was returning from a food and supply run when his phone rang. He had never gotten the hang of those ridiculous ear pieces, so he slowed down and answered the phone.

"Bobby."

"_Bobby? There are four magicals with British accents in your yard. I thought you would appreciate the heads up before you drove in and found them,"_ said Cassie, which was the name they had given the alternate Castiel. He was the designated house sitter when Bobby went out as well as the resident potion maker.

Castiel was surprisingly very good at making potions, particularly the one that the hunters were almost addicted to... Dreamless Sleep.

Sam and Dean were only given three vials between them in between visits, to avoid getting a dependency. The potion was the sole reason they got any real sleep after all the crap they went through.

Bobby's internal alarms were going off, and he immediately asked for descriptions.

"_One female has bushy hair and a rather bossy attitude. She seems to be the leader of this group. Two have bright red hair and seem to be brother and sister. The third is the youngest, but I don't think he's here willingly. I think they have him in silver, and it looks like it pains him."_

Sounded a lot like Hermione, Ron, Ginny and what he could only assume was Teddy. Though why they had his godson bound in silver he had no idea.

He knew a quick way to get answers though.

"Are the wards up?"

"_They went up the second these people appeared without warning."_

"Activate the power-sapping one. If they're here to drag me back, I want to make them fight for it."

"_Done. I've called to warn Sam and Dean...they were on their way back and should be here soon,"_ said Cassie.

They had been less than happy to hear that magicals had shown up so rudely on Bobby's doorstep. The American Ministry at least called before they showed up, because they were well aware Bobby was a hunter.

Bobby slowed down as he pulled into his driveway, and grabbed his shot gun before he even left the cab. The interior of his truck was enchanted heavily to block any spells from getting in while the doors were closed. It had been one of the few magical things he had done before Karen had died since becoming Bobby.

"Who are you and why are you on my property? And make the answers short and sweet before I open fire," warned Bobby, keeping up the ruse he had for years.

"Harry James Potter, just what were you thinking running away from your duties like that!" yelled the bushy haired one. Definitely Hermione.

"My name ain't Harry. I'm Robert Singer and you're trespassing. And kidnapping from the looks of it," he added, nodding towards the obvious shifter.

Teddy moved in a pained manner. Bobby could see the silver from where he was standing, and he was pissed.

"Who's Robert Singer?" asked Ron. He was still an idiot.

"Our father," said Dean from behind them, gun aimed at them.

"And the owner of this property," added Sam, his gun trained firmly on the bushy haired witch.

"You two don't look more than ten years younger than he is!" said Hermione imperiously.

"Either way, you lot aren't welcome. And why is that boy bound?"

"A werewolf is dangerous," said Ginny with a sneer towards Teddy.

"Well right now he seems to be the only one I'm not aiming a gun at. Sam, get the kid away from these idiots so we can get rid of them," said Bobby.

Sam slowly moved towards the kid, not lowering his gun. When he removed Teddy from the trio and got the cuffs off him with a minor application of wandless magic, Bobby growled at the trio when he saw the burns on the boy's arms.

"You have exactly three seconds before we start loading you three with holes," said Bobby angrily.

"You may have gotten the brat, but we'll be back Potter. You're not going to remain hidden for much longer," said Hermione.

The three disappeared with a crack.

"Cassie, get the door open and start bringing up healing potions," said Bobby.

Teddy didn't cry once when they treated what were obviously very painful burns.

"Uncle Harry..."

"It's Bobby now Pup. Dean, hand me the iodine," said Bobby.

"What the hell were those things on his wrist?"

"Magic suppressors... in silver no less. Bastards," spat Bobby.

"He a shifter?"

"Metamorph and half werewolf to boot. He got the allergy to silver from his father...my uncle. Hold still Pup, this is going to sting a little."

Teddy nodded, and winced slightly when Bobby put the iodine onto the fresh wounds. Bobby deftly bandaged them up.

"If they're coming here now, then something must have drawn them. I know it wasn't the wards...they're too subtle for them to bother with. And you two always refer to me by Bobby and not the name I used to have. Either way I am not dealing with their bullshit after all these years."

"So what do we do now?"

"Now we change locations. I own the land, and the taxes are paid automatically. Time to activate the bunker," said Bobby.

"Bunker?"

"Before I became Bobby permanently, I bought this old doomsday bunker and had it heavily refitted for any magical intrusions. A magical panic room of sorts. We just have to refill the pantry and fix it up a little and it will be good to go. I have some emergency port keys that were automatically set towards it in the event the panic room was compromised here."

"Geez Bobby, how rich are you? I mean refitting the house, owning this much land..."

"I'll show you my real bank account when we get there. Trust me, you're in for a shock."

"Considering he's actually a knight and a lord in both magical and mundane realms, he doesn't have to be a hunter," said Cassie, getting things packed into the trunk. He was just tossing things in to be automatically sorted.

Dean and Sam whipped around to Bobby.

"You're a Knight and a Lord?!" they said in shock.

"I'm the same as you. A hunter. What do fancy titles I have no use for matter when you hunt demons for a living?"

They conceded his point.

Cas showed up while they were packing all the essentials and helped out. He did, however, prove his use by removing several spells on Teddy before they moved him. No way was Bobby leaving him behind after he had seen fresh burns from silver on his godson.

* * *

"So let me get this straight... a bunch of pranks are being turned deadly?" said Bobby a week later.

They were in his kitchen, after they had revamped the bunker to suit them. When the magicals finally broke the last wards on the house and got in, they would be long gone. And anti-portkey spells wouldn't work because according to Bobby, most magicals didn't have the sense god gave a mule, and half the time they only put the spell over the house, not under it.

There was a tunnel that lead outside the property hidden under the bed in the panic room, one Dean and Sam had missed while they were dealing with the Witnesses.

"_Yeah, and the weird thing is that they're the really boring kind, not the ones you've been hitting us with,"_ said Dean.

Bobby had introduced them to his prankster side by breaking out some of the old pranks the Weasly twins had left him before George finally followed his brother into death. Twins as close as them didn't last long when one died, not without something keeping them there.

And there had been nothing to keep George back. So one day he went to sleep and never woke up.

He had gotten full control of their business, but without the twins it just didn't feel the same. So he put all the completed products and their recipes into his vault and shut the business down.

When he left, he had it transferred to the back of the bunker, mostly because he didn't want anyone finding it. After what Ron and Hermione tried to pull to keep him in England, they sure as hell didn't deserve any of it.

Bobby looked at his two roommates. Teddy was sound asleep on Cassie's lap, and he had been getting bored. Ever since he had his proper age restored, minus a few years or two, he had been getting more and more restless.

If he had to admit to himself, it was a bit of luck that a demon had possessed his wife. While he had mourned her death, it had opened his eyes to something he could throw himself into and no one would bat an eye.

"Where did you say you two idjits were at? And remember, I need pictures to teleport there," Bobby reminded them.

Bobby could apparate. He just preferred not to unless he wasn't in the mood to drive. To that end, Sam had started recording the places they had been with his webcam on his laptop so they could appear in any hotel they had been to before.

Not that they could just yet, as they hadn't been shown how to do so by Bobby and Dean had sworn he preferred to use 'Air-Cas' to apparition the first time Bobby took him using side-along.

Sam sent him a picture on the laptop, and Bobby gently woke Cassie. The former angel (his Grace wa returning, but it would take a miracle for him to return to heaven at this rate) gently picked up Teddy and took them to the panic room. Bobby snorted at the way Teddy curled up around Cassie.

Ever since he had reclaimed his godson, the half-werewolf had refused to go anywhere without someone with him. From what little Bobby could get out of him, Teddy had been tortured for a while now to try and force his godfather out of hiding. The fact he had no idea where Harry was hadn't helped his case.

There was a problem with that method though. Because Bobby had long since abandoned his original name and had it legally changed in both worlds to the one he used now, the only thing that bound him to Teddy was love. He wasn't magically obligated to take care of the kid after he changed his name, not unless he wanted to.

So whenever he had to leave the house, he had Cassie watch the kid since he could fight and still had enough angelic power to get them past any wards to the bunker.

Bobby took a good long look at the picture and apparated to where the boys were.

* * *

Dean nearly grabbed his gun when he heard the crack.

"Jesus Bobby! Why didn't you just call Cas?" said Dean, holding his chest. He _hated_ apparition.

"Why should I trust that overgrown feather duster to get around when I can do it without his help?" asked Bobby gruffly.

"Hey Bobby," said Sam.

"So where's this kid?"

Sam had spoken of a kid who seemed to live in the center of all this mess, and how he suspected that the boy had magic. A lot of it.

The second Bobby saw Jesse however, a ton of alarms went off in his head.

"Shit. I thought this was just a simple case of an overpowered kid with a lot of time on his hands. Cas can _not_ know about him," said Bobby with a hitched breath.

"Why not?"

"He's a cambion. Castiel would feel duty-bound to kill him on sight," said Bobby. There was an entire chapter on cambions and the warning signs when one was going evil in his book.

This kid was one, but he had at least been raised right. But that could change in a very big hurry if he didn't get this kid out of here fast.

"Shit...we called Cas two hours ago," said Dean.

"Stall him if he shows up while I go talk to the kid's parents. Worst case scenario, we take him with us and he can learn with Teddy," said Bobby.

It took Bobby an hour to track down Jesse's parents, and finding out the half-truth about Jesse's odd accidents had come as a relief. They weren't afraid to move if it meant protecting their son from the things that would be coming after him...and Jesse couldn't wait to meet Teddy. His powers had been so strong that he didn't have any friends.

Dean stalled Cas while Bobby got Jesse and his folks out of town, and until they knew Jesse wasn't going to turn evil they were going to keep the angel and the cambion three states apart and under heavy wards.

As it was, Bobby made sure Jesse would get into Salem later so he could learn some control.

* * *

Castiel gave Bobby a very unhappy look.

"You know where the cambion is."

"You're not killing him and don't even think of challenging me on that decision _angel_," growled Bobby.

Castiel tried to increase his power and stare down those green eyes. He couldn't do it for more than five seconds before he was forced to back off.

Cassie honestly didn't care. So long as Jesse left heaven alone, it wasn't his problem.

"I have a duty to kill cambions," said Castiel.

"Not if you're overruled by a superior. And since you're currently cut off from heaven, that makes your superior _me_. You know who I became the day I ganked Riddle. Unless an arch angel shows up to overrule me, you will follow orders," said Bobby staring the angel down.

Sam and Dean watched this with open fascination as Castiel backed off on the subject of the cambion.

"Why is Cas following Bobby's orders? I mean we do it out of habit and respect, but why is he?"

Bobby shot Cassie a look, but hadn't counted on Teddy telling them instead.

"Uncle Bobby is Death's Master. He can overrule angels except for the arch angels who can't come to Earth without special vessels. He even has half of Death's Ring," said Teddy.

"Hold up, Death's _Master_?" said Dean in shock.

Bobby huffed.

"Remember the Hallows?"

"Those three mystical items left behind by Death to three brothers?" said Sam, the only one who had read the _Tales of Beedle the Bard_.

"On their own, they're relatively harmless if a bit overpowered. But anyone who can combine them and gain their allegiance becomes Death's equal among the mortal plain. That gives them quite a bit of leeway among the lower angels and some of the seraphs. I'm guessing Death knew about the angels planning to start the apocalypse early and made a contingency plan to avoid Lucifer or heaven from running over the mortals completely."

"And you collected the artifacts?"

"When I was seventeen. I inherited the first from my father, beat the last owner of the wand, and collected the stone from Death's ring after being resurrected. After I got the stone I became Death's equal, so long as I don't abuse their powers. Since I never actually _used_ the damn things, that means my status is unchanged. It also means I outrank this feather brain here even when he _was_ still connected to heaven," said Bobby flatly.


	4. Chapter 4

Bobby was about to go to sleep when he got a phone call from an amused Sam.

"What the hell is so important that you call me at..." Bobby looked at the clock, "Three in the goddamn morning?!"

"_Dean ran into Patrick, and you said that you wanted to play him again to give Teddy another chance at being a kid. Sorry if I woke you."_

"You sure it's Pat?"

"_Dean looks as old as you were before you reversed his magic,"_ confirmed Sam. Bobby heard Dean curse Sam out on the other end of the phone.

"Send me a picture and I'll be there in a few hours. But first I am getting some damn sleep!" said Bobby with a bark.

Sam wished him goodnight and Bobby closed his phone. He saw a sleepy Teddy come in, his eyes red.

"Can't sleep Pup?"

"Heard yelling."

"Sam and Dean found Patrick. I promised you after Cas broke those spells that you would have a second chance to enjoy your childhood and you know I hate lying to my Pups," said Bobby. Teddy nodded and leaned into his arms.

He missed his uncle. Harry had always been kind to him and he knew if Bobby had known about the hell the magicals had put him through that he would have done something about it. Bobby was very protective of his Pups...something Sam and Dean would learn if the chance ever arose.

It wasn't any surprise that Bobby's animagus for was a wolf the size of a Warg from the _Lord of the Rings_ movies. Though according to Harry before he left, he was actually a dire wolf, an extinct magical breed said to be descended from Fenrirsûlfr himself.

* * *

Bobby and Teddy were in some no name town where Sam and Dean were.

"Hey puppy," said Dean. He looked like hell.

"So what's the plan?"

"I'll go play against Patrick and offer him a few extra years so that Teddy gets his childhood back and Dean goes back to looking like his fugly self," said Bobby.

"HEY!"

Sam snickered. He liked this younger Bobby...he had an amusing sense of humor and he smiled more.

"You three stay put while I clear this up," said Bobby.

"Have fun!" Sam called out, before he continued his lessons with Teddy on how to use a computer.

Dean grumbled in the corner.

* * *

It took Bobby five minutes to find the Irish wizard, and two minutes to head to the man's table.

"Didn't expect to see you again Black," said Patrick.

"The arrogant hunter you took twenty five off of was my son. I'm here to get it back and then some... one of my Pups needs a second chance to grow up since things went worse after I left," said Bobby calmly.

"The green-eyed moron who thought he was good at poker?" said Patrick, eyebrow up.

"Dean's an idiot, but he has a good heart," said Bobby.

"Let's play then. How many years did you need taken off?"

"Dean gets all his years back plus one extra, and I need ten taken off Teddy Lupin-Black," said Bobby. Patrick brought out a magical contract, standard for when he played against people with a magical core.

Taking ten years off would put Teddy roughly at the same age as Jesse.

Bobby signed it without hesitation. He didn't need his magic to beat Patrick...the first time he had run into the man he had deliberately lost to get rid of his followers. His luck was insanely good...a side effect of having such crappy luck when it came to hunting and his adventures.

In less than an hour, Bobby had reversed what had been done to Dean, given Teddy his childhood back, and as an added bonus when Patrick got annoyed with him, lost two more years off his own age.

"I'll never understand how you always have such bloody good luck when we play!" complained Patrick.

"Next time we'll play for beers," said Bobby.

"I'll hold you to that Black!" said Patrick, his mood sour.

Bobby had his arms full of a very cheerful werewolf cub when he returned to the hotel room. Sam looked at him suspiciously.

"Did you get younger again?"

"Patrick got irritated with me and bet a few extra years. Figured I might as well put them on my tab instead of Dean's. Unless you want him to be the same age as you," said Bobby.

"No way in hell," said Sam immediately.

* * *

_Three weeks later..._

Bobby was worried. Sam and Dean hadn't called him in two days, and they normally gave him reports of where they were so he could ask around for hunts in the area.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore.

"Teddy, you're going to visit with Jesse for a bit. I'm worried about the idjits," said Bobby.

"Okay dad!" said Teddy.

Ever since he had lost ten years, Teddy had regressed to a younger age mentally to recover from his ordeal. And since he had always associated Bobby with good things he started calling him Dad and Bobby had never bothered to correct him.

Dean and Sam considered the half-werewolf as their little brother, and Dean had even transferred most of his overprotective tendencies towards Teddy instead of Sam. Sam couldn't be more relieved about that, since it meant that Dean wasn't coddling him.

Once he had dropped Teddy and Cassie off with Jesse and his parents (Cassie was the go-to babysitter of choice) Bobby called Castiel.

"_Castiel."_

"Cas, I need a lift. Sam and Dean haven't picked up their phones in two days, and I'm getting worried,"said Bobby.

Cas appeared without warning, and it was only his years as a wizard that kept him from cursing the angel out for his sudden appearance.

Cas grabbed Bobby's shoulder and they appeared where Dean's Impala was.

While Castiel had enchanted the Winchesters and the Blacks (Teddy and Bobby) to be hidden from angels, Bobby had enchanted the car so that only the angels keyed into the spell could find it.

It was a way for Castiel to find the brothers without having to call them. Wherever the Impala was, Dean was usually in the general vicinity. He loved that car too much to leave it alone for too long.

Cas went in first, and Bobby heard a squawk of surprise from the angel. He waited for the angel to return, but when he was still gone for twenty minutes, Bobby went in.

What he found had him blinking.

Why the hell was there a fifties sitcom in the middle of the warehouse?

His cap hid his eyes, so it took the boys a few minutes to recognize him. Castiel reappeared, though he looked rather harried.

Before the trickster could send the angel away twice, Bobby's patience snapped.

Loki found himself on the wrong end of the Elder wand and pinned in a sudden ring of holy fire. When he got too close he yelped the moment he recognized it for what it was.

"How'd you do that?"

"You are a sucky guardian spirit, Loki," growled Bobby.

Loki blinked.

"What did you just call me?"

"You heard me Trickster! You were tasked by Sirius Orion Black to protect his godson shortly before the magicals turned him into their personal scapegoat, and yet not once have you done your goddamn job! And now I find you're torturing my sons and worrying me half to death because you want them to 'play their parts'! Here's a newsflash for you, _Loki_, I'm not letting either of those overgrown peacocks getting their claws into my sons!" snarled Bobby.

"Bobby..." started Sam.

"Bobby, what the hell are you talking about guardians?" asked Dean.

"Bobby? As in Robert Singer?! What the hell happened to you?!" said Loki in shock.

Bobby had enough, and yanked his hat off his head, revealing a faded lightning-shaped scar. Loki swore rather impressively as he realized what was going on.

"Dammit...if I had known that was who you were..." he cursed to himself.

Loki had been approached by Sirius Black by his true name as Gabriel the Angel and asked by the man to keep an eye on his godson until he could do his job as godfather. However Gabriel had never been taken off protecting Harry because of circumstances beyond their control, and he had forgotten all about it until he heard about the kid becoming Death's Equal Among Mortals, or as the humans mistakenly believed, his Master.

And by that time it was too late to do anything, because Harry had been fully grown.

Then he went missing, and Gabriel had been unable to find him.

Now here he was, under a new name and calling him to task for not doing his one job that he had in the past several centuries right. And calling the Winchesters his sons no less?

Why did he have the feeling his Father was behind this cosmic prank?

"Bobby, what's going on?" asked Sam.

"My godfather, the one who fell through the Veil, asked his patron god to protect his godson and the heir of the Black family in the event he was kept from him. But this bastard never once showed up to do his job, not even when Karen was possessed and I actually called for his help! Now here he is, trying to force you two into playing the part of vessels and I'm not going to let him," growled Bobby.

"Easy! I couldn't have gotten near you with the wards in the way, and by the time they broke you were moving all over the place!"

"Bullshit! I know for a fact that I wasn't under any wards around the time the first letters were being sent to me! I was in the middle of the ocean, and the wards themselves had broken long before they even went out!" said Bobby.

Loki winced. If he continued to torment the brothers, then there was a very high chance he would fall and lose what little Grace he had left in him. And he really, really didn't want to fall, no matter how much he hated his brothers fighting.

"England was considered a no-angel zone after Voldemort was reduced to a shade. And by the time we were allowed back in, your anger towards the magicals kept us from going near it," said Castiel. Loki breathed a sigh of relief at the save.

"And after I left England? I prayed for three straight hours before I finally had to kill Karen," growled Bobby.

"You were under another name. It was likely he didn't realize who was calling for him," said Castiel. Gabriel had a lot to answer for, but he would rather not have a pissed off Bobby Singer killing his brother.

Bobby didn't lower his wand, but his glare at Loki dropped slightly.

"So which one is he? I can fell his Grace from here Castiel, so don't lie to me," said Bobby.

"Gabriel," said Loki, not bothering to hide it.

"The arch angel?" said Sam, eyebrow raising.

"Yup," said Gabriel, popping the 'p' sound.

What Bobby did next had the brother's jaw dropping and Gabriel looking very put out.

"In that case. I am calling in the debt you owe to the Black family for not doing the job given and transferring it to the idjits over here. Which means if you try to pull your trickster magic on them again until I call it off, your Grace will be stripped from you and you'll be no better than Castiel over here," said Bobby.

"Oh come on!" whined Gabriel as he felt the magic settle over him and the Winchesters.

"If you had done your job, you wouldn't be stuck with them," said Bobby vindictively.

Let it never be said that Bobby Singer didn't know how to hold one hell of a grudge.

And to top off Gabriel's new sentence as the Winchester brother's personal guardian angel, Bobby slipped enough laxatives in the arch angel's secret stash of sweets to make him glued to the toilet for a solid week.

Never piss off a Marauder, let alone one who had no issue getting his revenge on angels without fear of being smited.

* * *

Dean and Sam took a full month to get over what Bobby had done in binding Gabriel to them.

Gabriel quickly found that being called to task for his inability to do a simple guardian angel job right wasn't nearly as bad as he had initially assumed. Bobby wasn't asking him to do everything for the brothers, just to show up when they got in over their heads, like when they planned to face Lucifer with the Colt.

Bobby was against it, as he had read somewhere that Lucifer wasn't a demon in the book that he never let Sam or Dean near if he could help it.

Gabriel popped into the salvage yard because Bobby wanted someone to talk some sense into the brothers since they had trouble getting it through their thick heads that Lucifer couldn't be killed with the methods they were used to.

"Hello muttonheads!" said Gabriel waltzing in like he owned the place. Bobby hit him with a stinging hex on the ass on principle.

Gabriel double-checked the chocolate that Teddy gave him, since Bobby had hit him with a laxative that way before once.

"So what's up?"

"Who is this?" asked Ellen.

"Gabriel, the arch angel. You might know him better as the Trickster Loki. Don't bother shooting him...we don't have anything to kill arch angels in stock," said Bobby.

"Love you too, Black," said Gabriel flippantly. Bobby flipped him the bird.

"Why did he call you Black?" asked Jo.

"I called in a debt he owes the family and tied his sorry feathered ass to the idjits. He has to come when called or he'll lose a good portion of his powers like Castiel has," said Bobby offhand.

"Must be some debt, to tie an arch angel down," said Ellen.

"More like Black can hold one _hell_ of a grudge," muttered Gabriel.

"It was a simple guardian angel job! Castiel could have done it with one eye closed! But no, the great Loki has to _forget_ about the fact that one of his followers asked him to do one SIMPLE thing!" said Bobby irate.

Gabriel winced. Bobby's magic was flaring. He always got touchy when the subject was brought up and Gabriel was nearby to hex.

"So why did you call me?" he asked, quickly changing the subject before Bobby's magic exploded something.

"We need someone to convince the idjits that the Colt isn't going to work on your more irritating older brother," said Bobby.

"Which one? Lucy or Mikey?"

"Lucy."

"Yeah no. The Colt was made specifically for anything that originates in the Pit, and Lucy is from heaven originally. Besides that, you had to remake it and Ruby gave you a flawed way of doing it. At best it can take out some of the lesser demons or an arch duke if you're really lucky, but Lucifer? You'd be going on a suicide mission."

"I thought as much. And it would take too long to make a new one," said Bobby gruffly.

As Death's Equal, he could make his own Colt. But it would take months, and that was time he didn't have.

"So what made you think you could take Lucifer on this early anyway?"

"We got a tip from Crowley that he would be in some town next week," said Dean.

"Oh, that. I would think Bobby would be able to sense what Lucy's planning without being told second hand from Crowley," said Gabriel.

"Why's that?"

"Out of the horsemen, only Death is still below. Lucifer's going to force him to rise even though he's doing his best to avoid that. Death hates being under the control of Lucy, and knowing that ass he would make Death use necromancy," said Gabriel.

"Which is something Death hates almost as much as he does phylacteries," said Bobby.

"What are..."

"God, read a D and D manual sometime Dean! Phylacteries are objects that have someone soul stuff in them so they become a lich," said Sam.

"Pretty much," said Bobby.

Contrary to popular belief, Dungeons and Dragons was not full of shit. More than half of the things used in the games were based off the magical communities, since one of the creators was a half-blood from a pure blood family that had been kicked out because he had been more interested in playing games than running the family business.

The fact that he had become richer than the minor pure blood clan because of his game had been a small bit of irony.


	5. Chapter 5

Bobby nearly jumped off the bed when he felt Death's rise from the pit. Being his equal meant that he could feel how _pissed_ Death was about it.

Thankfully Gabriel had convinced the brothers that killing Lucifer was out of the question at the moment. Even if they had Gabriel's sword (which he was so not handing over with Bobby nearby and still very much pissed at him), it was still a small chance in hell that they would succeed.

And Bobby wasn't in the mood to alert Lucifer that Death's Equal had claimed the Winchesters as his sons, or that he was very firmly against him.

His status was still firmly in place, but outside of Castiel and Gabriel, not a one was aware that Bobby was in fact the missing Harry Potter. It didn't hurt that none of his associates called him by his old name.

So when three days later he got a visit from a reaper, Bobby made sure Teddy was with the boys while he went to see Death in person.

* * *

Bobby...no, this was Harry now, walked into the quiet area Death was currently sitting in at a table. There was proper British tea and even a few scones.

"Hello Death. This is the first time we've seen each other properly since that night isn't it? You were hiding as Dumbledore the last time I saw you," said Harry.

Death chuckled.

"Hello Black. I wish this were a social visit, but I'm afraid Lucifer is very interested in where my stone went," said Death. He had gotten away from the fallen angel for only a few hours, as he had told the pest that his Equal would not speak with him present or listening.

"I'm sure he is. That overgrown peacock can go back to his little cage for all I care," said Harry flatly.

"I have not told him that you have claimed the Winchesters as your family. I thought you would enjoy that little surprise," said Death. Harry snorted in agreement.

"So how are the others?"

"War is quite put out that my Equal hadn't even thought to introduce himself properly before he ended his fun so quickly. Famine wants to see whether or not you can handle his natural presence and is currently about to start targeting couples and pin the blame on a cupid, and last I heard of Pestilence he was going to start spreading the Croatoan virus soon."

"And you?"

"Lucifer has ordered me to bring forth the lost loved ones of your small town once the Winchesters come into contact with Famine," said Death grimacing.

Harry growled.

"He means to bring back Karen?" he said angrily.

Death nodded.

"He is unaware that you changed your name or that you are fully aware of the full situation. What I can do is give you and your sons a fighting chance at putting that overbearing peacock back in his cell," said Death.

Death took off the ring on his hand and gave it to Harry, who placed the stone back where it belonged. The crack in the center fused back to it's original state, the damage done by it's stint as a horcrux mended at last. A fake ring appeared on Death's hand, covering the fact that he no longer had it.

"Now Lucifer no longer controls my full power...but he has my true name and he will use it to force my hand," said Death irritated beyond belief.

"Not if after you are forced to use necromancy you hand over the mantle until he is punted back into hell," said Harry.

Death nodded.

"I will let him control me once, but then I will let you deal with the reapers. I'm going on vacation for a change," said Death in agreement.

The second Lucifer forced him to use necromancy, Death would hand over his scythe to Harry until the prick was dealt with. That meant Harry would become Death for a time and he could go on a much needed vacation without causing mass genocide with his mere presence.

* * *

Castiel was about to take the boys back into the past to stop Anna, who had apparently gone off the deep end because she believed ending the Winchesters would stop Lucifer and Micheal, when Bobby held him up.

"You don't have the amount of power to take them to the past without passing out."

"I am sure once we have dealt with Anna, we will have sufficient time for me to recover."

"But you might hit the wrong alternate. Which is why I have a better idea."

Castiel raised an eyebrow, wondering what Bobby planned to do.

"Cassie, is that circle ready yet?" asked Bobby.

"Just completed it!" Cassie yelled back.

Castiel looked past his alternate self (it was easier to claim they were twins than explain why there were now two of them) to see... a very rare summoning circle?

"What are you about to do?"

"Force Anna to appear. Even if she's in the past, this will drag her sorry ass back," said Bobby, grabbing the book he kept close.

The Compendium was something Bobby had kept locked away for decades since he had found it in his vault shortly after being turned into Death's Equal. Now that the apocalypse was about to kick off, he was using it more than he had since he got it.

The thing was, Castiel knew for a fact that there were nothing in existence made by mortals, magical or otherwise, that had half the things in the book. Which was why he was very curious as to what it actually _was._

Bobby took the Compendium and went straight to the section on summoning specific angels. Once the book opened to the appropriate page, he started a long stream of Enochian that Castiel could only partially translate. Some of it was very old and quite a bit was for the use of the higher angels only. As in only the arch angels should be able to use it like this.

Suddenly the circle sprang into fire, as it had been made with holy oil and a very surprised Anna Milton was standing in the middle of it.

"What the hell?" she said, her eyes wide with shock.

"You are a damn idjit," said Bobby gruffly, closing the book with a loud snap. It vanished to wherever Bobby kept it when not in use.

"Bobby Singer? How did you pull off such a summons?" she said in disbelief.

Bobby however was taking a long look at Anna's eyes.

"That explains a lot. Been talking to Zachariah recently Anna?" he asked.

"Zachariah?" said Castiel sharply. The seraph was firmly on the side of starting the apocalypse now and getting it over with. He was also a thorn in the side of the Winchester brothers and a total asshole, according to Dean.

"She's got his handprint all over her vessel. Looks like he brainwashed her so that they could recreate the boys," said Bobby pissed.

They didn't need Sam or Dean Winchester, only the bloodline that the two had. Which meant if Anna were to wipe the brothers out then the angels could recreate their bodies and the two could be stuck in heaven while the world went straight to hell as Micheal and Lucifer duked it out.

Which Bobby was not going to let slide if he could help it.

Bobby hit Anna with a balloon filled with Draught of the Living Death and she collapsed in the circle.

Under normal circumstances, potions wouldn't have much effect on angels. But this had been made by Castiel and Cassie, so it had enough holy energy to actually effect vessels and the angels inside.

Once they moved Anna to an angel-proof room that she couldn't get out of if she managed to break the potion's hold, Bobby summoned Zachariah after changing his appearance slightly to chew the bastard out.

To say that the seraph was surprised that Death's Equal had taken offense to the stunt and had been able to force him to manifest on Earth was an understatement. The fact Harry then proceeded to put a block on his powers making it very difficult for him to effect anything that happened on Earth or go near the Winchester bloodline just put a massive crimp in his plans for the two.

Zachariah would fall if he tried to harm or otherwise manipulate the Winchesters, no matter if it was Sam, Dean or any of their bloodline. He would have to work through an intermediary if he wanted to get the job given to him specifically done.

He was less than happy about it.

* * *

The minute Gabriel got a summons from Dean once Sam admitted to his brother that he had stared at demon's blood dripping from the knife he had used to kill one while he investigated another suspicious death, he was quick to send the hunter to Bobby's secondary panic room in the bunker and replace him with a rather annoyed Bobby instead.

His job done, Gabriel left before Famine's power could effect him as well. Castiel had already become a victim of it, as his craving for red meat had come back in full force.

"How come you're not effected by whatever this is Bobby?" asked Dean a few hours later. They had finally figured out what they were dealing with, but that didn't mean that they were in the clear.

"I am being hit with Famine's little power. The thing is that it woke up something I thought I already had a control over," said Bobby irritably.

"And what's that?"

Bobby couldn't look Dean in the eyes as he mumbled something.

"What was that?" asked Dean.

"I have a 'saving people thing', alright?"

"A _what_?"

"I have a compulsion to save people. Remember that bushy haired brunette harpy that tried to barge into my house a few months back? She once said I have a severe problem that involved me having to compulsively save people no matter what danger it put me in. She called it a 'saving people thing'," said Bobby embarrassed.

"You're kidding."

"I once stared down a recently blinded basilisk just to save a girl I barely knew or cared about, and I nearly ran head on into the thing that took my godfather away if Remus hadn't stopped me."

"What's a basilisk?"

"Big fucking snake that kills if you look it in the eye, and venom so potent that only a phoenix's tears can keep you from being killed by it within minutes of it getting into your blood," said Bobby flatly.

"And you faced that when you were twelve?" said Dean incredulous.

Bobby refused to look Dean in the eye.

"Oh this I have to hear... what else?" said Dean eagerly. He knew Bobby was pretty damn tough for an someone barely a decade older than Dean, but he hadn't known he was that hard to kill.

Bobby reluctantly began to tell Dean some of his adventures, unedited, before he finally tried to live a normal life as Robert Singer.

Needless to say Dean was very impressed and thought his 'father' was totally a bigger badass than John Winchester had ever been.

John might have made a tolerable hunter, but Bobby had him beat before he was even old enough to drive.

Dean was openly disappointed when Bobby had to stop sharing his old stories with him and they had to go find Famine.

Still it was pretty funny to see Bobby use some of his real moves against the demons.

"Diffindo!" shouted Bobby, severing one demon's arm clean off. He ducked under the second one with a grace Dean had never seen of his father figure before, and he could see why Bobby had been feared as the number one magical cop in Britain before he had enough of their bullshit and left.

In between his spells and some rather spectacular martial arts moves that Dean fully planned to bug the hell out of Bobby later to learn, the demons were taken out in short order.

Famine clapped in appreciation of the show.

"Truly impressive for my brother's equal," he said in admiration.

"Your ring, please," said Bobby. His memories of the past were so strong that Dean was surprised to note his voice had a distinct British accent.

"Oh, but why should I give you mine while you have my brother's on your finger? Yes, I can sense his power from here, Mr. Black."

"Do you really want to be at the beck and call of some jumped up feather duster forever, or would you rather go and gorge yourself in some no name village in Africa?" countered Bobby calmly.

Famine's laugh sent chills down Dean's spine. Bobby was unflappable even while staring down the horseman.

"You present an intriguing argument. Shall I assume that if I don't comply and hand over this ring that you will use the Book on me?"

"I have no desire to use it against something as ancient as you. We both know that particular book has a steep price if used directly against a power such as yourself. I would just as soon cut off the finger to get the ring," said Bobby flatly.

"A compelling retort. Very well," said Famine, taking off the gaudy piece of jewelry and letting it drop to the floor. With a strong push, his power disappeared into the air.

"Bobby, what was he talking about?"

"You don't need to know. I'm already in more deep than I like simply by my agreement with the last Horseman. I don't need it's power to do my job," said Bobby stiffly.

He couldn't bear to tell Dean the truth about the book, or the price that came of frequent use of the thing. Every object of power came with a steep price in the end.

For the Hallows it had brought nothing but misery and greed. Bobby would have had to be forced to retake his mantle as Death's Equal if given a choice in the matter.


	6. Chapter 6

Dean and Sam were worried when Bobby refused to answer the phone. They had recently heard of something rather odd in his general area and they wanted to be sure he was alright.

Finally, during a spirited debate on whether to try calling again or just going over to investigate themselves, the problem was solved by Gabriel showing up without warning.

"JESUS! What is with you damn angels and showing up like that?" yelped Dean holding his hand to his chest. He hated that!

Gabriel chuckled evilly.

"What's up? I can feel your distress all the way from Malibu," he said.

"Why were you in Malibu?" asked Sam.

"Stock broker. Used his stolen funds to help the demons take control of a pharmaceutical company. Decided to show him how I felt about him draining charities that help children to bring death to countless people," deadpanned Gabriel.

"Oh."

"So what's got your panties in a bunch?" asked Gabriel, popping in a sucker.

"Bobby's not answering his phone, and we just caught wind of something weird in his area," said Dean.

"Oh that. Death was forced to use necromancy to bring several people back, and he's rather pissed about it. One of them was Karen," explained Gabriel.

"What?!" yelped Dean.

Sam immediately dialed one of the fake numbers Bobby used to play at being an FBI agent, knowing that he would likely answer it on reflex since he pretended to be various agencies for multiple hunters.

The second Sam heard a woman answer, he left a message for Bobby and they high-tailed to the salvage yard.

They found a relaxed Bobby sitting in a rather nice recliner with a book while a woman they only barely recognized from the dream root mess cleaned the kitchen from a recently made pastry.

"Bobby? Why didn't you call us?" hissed Dean.

Bobby put down the book he was reading and glared at them.

"Did it ever occur to you that I might want a few days with my wife before I'm forced to put her to rest again permanently?" he grumbled.

Teddy happily helped Karen clean the kitchen, and the woman smiled at the boy.

"What is going on Bobby? Why is she alive?"

"Lucifer is using Death's true name against him and forcing him to use necromancy. Death hasn't told him who his Equal had become, or that I had claimed you two idjits as my sons. As far as Lucifer is aware, this is one of his ploys to try and kill your 'father' figure as a warning. Once the dead start to go bad I'll deal with them. For now I'm letting everyone enjoy just a little extra time with their loved ones," said Bobby flatly.

Dean and Sam blinked.

"Death's true name?"

"If you know the true name of something, you can control it completely. But it comes at a heavy price of knowing every little intricate detail of the one you're controlling. Death already gave me the rest of his ring weeks ago."

"And how are we going to keep him from doing this again?"

"Death's going on vacation once I put the others back to rest. He won't be an issue after this, and he's already pissed with Lucifer for this stunt," said Bobby, turning the page.

"Bobby, what did you do to convince Death to hand over his ring?"

"Death doesn't want to deal with Lucifer, he's being forced. And he knows that I won't abuse his power like most magicals so he's going to do something to royally piss off the arrogant peacock just because he can."

Bobby wasn't going to elaborate any more at the moment, so the brothers reluctantly decided to settle in.

Karen walked in with fresh pie, and Dean almost immediately fell in love with her after one bite.

Karen Singer had been shocked when her husband had come in looking like he had when she had married him, but that had been nothing compared to the surprise he had given her when he knew immediately what had been done.

Finding out that her husband had kept such a secret from her to keep her safe had come as an unwelcome surprise. But the fact was Bobby had never wanted to be Death's Equal, or return to the man he had been before he became the one she had fallen for. He would have been perfectly happy being Bobby Singer, an ordinary mechanic.

If the demons hadn't forced him to face reality, then none of this might have happened.

Still, Karen didn't begrudge her husband for not telling her everything. This sort of thing would have kept her up at nights, worrying about a world she normally would have had no part in had she not been possessed.

Bobby had a few tears as he was forced to end Karen once more. He hated Lucifer for coming up with this twisted game that tortured him with a few precious days with his wife.

At least this time he could do it painlessly instead of shooting her. And he put a seal on her soul so that nothing above or below could use her like this again.

Once that was done he saw the little surprise Death had used a reaper to deliver while he was preoccupied with his wife.

Death's primary weapon, his scythe. Bobby picked it up with a heavy heart as he felt the power of the weapon lock onto his very core.

He hated having this power, and he sure as hell didn't want it to begin with. All he had wanted was to be normal, to have a family and live in peace.

But as Bobby had read once, 'Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power'.

He wondered what it said about his character that he was the most powerful human on the planet at that moment with a simple scythe in his hands, and yet he would gladly abandon it and his own mantle as Death's Equal if it meant that his family would have some measure of peace in their lives.

Dean made it back to the salvage yard in time to see Bobby cutting down the undead with a rather sharp blade. It seemed to pass right through them, yet whenever it did the creatures dropped where they stood in their tracks.

"Bobby...what..." started Dean.

When he finished putting the dead back to rest, the scythe in his hands vanished into and odd looking band around his right wrist.

"I told you before, Death wasn't happy about what was going on," said Bobby, looking more tired than Dean had ever seen him. Teddy was safely in the panic room waiting to be let out. He had gone in the moment Karen felt the turn beginning to start.

They let Bobby have a few days to himself after he cremated Karen and put her back to rest in her grave before confronting him.

Bobby seemed weary in both body and spirit as he told a waiting group of people he considered his only family left what he had done.

"You all know that back when I was young, stupid and being manipulated left and right by people I should have been able to trust that I became Death's Equal. A few days after Lucifer brought him out of the pit, he sent a reaper to bring me to him," said Bobby tiredly, clutching his glass of strong scotch like a man with a lifeline to safety.

"And you went with a reaper?" said Ellen.

Bobby gave her a look and she simmered down. Gabriel was silently impressed.

"It's generally considered bad form to ignore a summons from something like the personification of Death. And it wasn't the first time we had met. Death is just as pissed with Lucifer as we are, and he wanted nothing to do with bringing the apocalypse to earth so early, unlike most of heaven and all of hell. So we came up with a simple trick guaranteed to piss off the peacock good and proper."

"You switched places," said Gabriel.

Everyone stared at the arch angel, then at Bobby in shock.

"Something like that. I'm not actually the new Death, more like a vessel for most of his power and tricks. But the basic gist of it is that Death is now somewhere in a tropical island on vacation with most of his power and abilities sealed off until I return what belongs to him, while I control his reapers and deal with Lucifer. Preferably without going on a killing spree or over using his powers," added Bobby dryly.

"And what exactly does becoming Death do to you?" asked Sam. He wasn't very happy with this, and nearly was anyone else.

"I lose more of my humanity the longer I control Death's full power. Basically I become colder, lose my emotions and quit caring about what happens to you idjits," said Bobby. It was clear he didn't want to have this power, but he would keep it until this mess was sorted out.

"So what can you do?" asked Jo.

"I can reverse death to a degree, so long as the soul hasn't moved on or the body isn't too badly damaged. And like I said before, I control the reapers now. Another big thing is that I can tie angels to me," said Bobby.

Castiel and Cassie inhaled sharply. As fallen angels, that was a pretty big deal for them.

"Don't get too excited Cas, Cassie. If you get tied to Bobby that just means that you'll have a harder time getting back home later," warned Gabriel.

They were already treading on thin ice from being disconnected from the Host for so long.

"So exactly what does this mean?"

"Nothing really. Just that Lucifer won't be able to use Death's true name against him anymore and we'll have front row seats to the look on his face when he learns where the power went and that the one being he wanted on his team is firmly on the same side as the Winchesters from the start. Should have seen Zachariah's arrogant face when I sealed his feathered ass in heaven after trying to use Anna to kill the idjits," snorted Bobby.

"Hold up, what do you mean by that?" said Dean.

Bobby rolled his eyes.

"Zachariah brainwashed Anna to go into the past to kill Mary and John before you were conceived in an effort to force you two idjits into saying yes to stop her, since we don't have any readily available weapons to kill angels with. If she killed you in the past, then they could simply rebuild your bodies without any soul to deal with and the two morons could get their fight on while you were stuck in heaven. Unfortunately for him and luckily for you, Castiel stopped by the house first to get your location from me."

"Bobby summoned Anna directly and then brought Zachariah down by force. Zachariah cannot override Death's Equal without approval from a higher angel, and he was already in trouble for sending Dean into the wrong future without realizing it since Micheal had been the one to give him the power required. The fact Dean brought a passenger from that alternate future really put him in hot water with the arch angels, and they wouldn't hesitate to kill me if I wasn't already under Bobby's protection," explained Cassie.

Cassie was already considered bound to Bobby, it just hadn't been made formal yet.

"Please tell me you'll share the memory of the look on his face when he found out who you were," begged Dean.

Bobby always had the _best _memories to watch. It had been highly entertaining for the boys to go into Bobby's memory collection and watch his battle with the basilisk and the dragons. Jesse and Teddy had openly cheered him on while Sam and Dean ate popcorn.

Bobby certainly didn't mind, and he kept the really bad memories locked safely in his head.

"I might be able to part with that one," agreed Bobby.

He didn't mind that the boys viewed him as something akin to a super-hunter when they finally had a chance to see his memories. Sam and Dean were a bit less star-struck by the memories, but they had something akin to respect for all the crap their surrogate father went through.

Bobby was not a happy camper. He had felt the boys being killed earlier that night (because of how close he was to the idjits he felt it every time they were 'killed' even if it was for a moment) and had dispatched reapers to guard their bodies until they returned.

Castiel had managed to get a hold of them through the broken two-way mirror Bobby had tried and failed to repair so they were on an errand to find Joshua to get a few answers.

In the mean time Bobby was fretting because the longer they were in heaven, the more likely it was that Zachariah might have one of his lackeys inform Lucifer about Sam's body being vacant, if a bit damaged.

There was a hole in his heart that was really starting to worry him when he felt something come down from heaven. The hole filled in, though there was still something missing.

A little piece of his humanity had died the moment the boys went into heaven.

Castiel and Cassie noticed and they silently agreed to warn the Winchesters of this fact. Perhaps then they would take more caution when it came to getting killed.

_Somewhere on a tropical island..._

Death looked up and frowned. Just because he had shoved off his responsibilities onto his mortal counterpart didn't mean he had lost his powers entirely. He could sense Robert Singer's soul shred just a little when the Vessels were briefly killed by other hunters.

Really, anchoring himself to people who tended to die rather easily was a foolish idea, but he wasn't going to begrudge the man for trying to have something to hold on to.

Lucifer was already very pissed that Death hadn't reappeared after the spell, even with the use of his true name.

And best of all thanks to what he had done shortly after his Mortal counterpart had been chosen for the first time since he removed the stone from his ring, Lucifer was unable to find the true name of the one with his power.

He knew giving Harry that book would be a good idea in the long run. More so since the man had locked it away until it was actually useful instead of just using the power it held willy-nilly like some idiots.

Bobby hated looking at the damn thing, let alone having to use the knowledge it contained. He would probably gladly hand it over to the true caretaker the first chance he had once this was over.


	7. Chapter 7

**_Okay, to clarify a few things:_**

**_First, Bobby's age is whatever he feels like, and at the moment he's about 29 thanks to playing against Patrick.  
_**

**_Second, the reason why he was worried about the Taboo wasn't because he was afraid of England, he just didn't want the headache or a giant sign screaming that he was a wizard to the other hunters, particularly to Sam and Dean._**

**_Third, I am aware Bobby is a bit overpowered, but I never said the power-up was permanent. Once Lucifer is gone Bobby's going back to his previous post as Death's voice among the mortals, and he won't have the book for long after that._**

**_Fourth, Teddy was a bit younger than he was supposed to be when he was rescued by Bobby, primarily because he tried to pull the same escape plan Bobby did and got caught. _**

**_And Finally, the reason why Hermione and the others didn't recognize him on sight is because he was much older than he should have looked considering wizard do AGE SLOWER than mundanes. I hope this clears a few things up!_**

* * *

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...what the hell do you mean part of Bobby's humanity was stripped?" said Dean.

"Your deaths cause a rift to form in his soul, and part of his humanity was taken. It filled in slightly with your return, but not completely. Bobby can _feel_ every time you two die. He has from the start," said Cassie.

"Bobby feels it when we die?" said Sam horrified.

"You're the closest thing he has to a family since he lost his own. He's not even nearly as close to his godson and cousin as he is to you two, though that's slowly changing," said Castiel.

Dean and Sam sat down in shock. They hadn't realized that Bobby knew when they died and were brought back.

"Because he now carries the bulk of Death's powers, Bobby has anchored his humanity on those he is particular close to. That includes the Harvelles, Teddy and to you two in particular. You're the closest thing he has to family at all."

Dean and Sam frowned. They were aware of the bad blood between Bobby and most of Europe...he had reluctantly shared his rather difficult escape and the original meeting with the witch who had stolen Dean's years from him in poker.

The English hadn't let go of him without a fight, at least not until the one called Ginny had walked into the Potter vaults under the fiancee clause and found that the entire thing was empty.

Since Bobby had never let her into it beforehand, everyone assumed he had spent it all in his escape. They had no idea he had simply sent it ahead and used multiple dummy accounts to keep them from finding it, or that he had it all in a normal bank account that was acquiring better interest now than it had in Gringotts.

The Black vaults had been sealed until Teddy came of age, since Bobby had named him his heir in the event that he was killed before he sired any children of his own.

England had really screwed Bobby over but good.

Seeing that they got the point, Castiel dropped another bombshell on them.

"Are you aware that according to the magical authorities your last name isn't even Winchester?"

"What?" said Dean in surprise.

"According to the magical society, your last name isn't Winchester," said Castiel.

"Why?"

"If we're not called Winchester, then what the hell have they been calling us when we stop by the alleys?" asked Dean.

"Black," said Castiel.

"Black? Wasn't that what Gabriel kept calling Bobby?" asked Sam.

"Bobby's full name is Robert Singer-Black. It was how he kept the magical government happy about the fact he had dropped off the radar and kept his vault active. It was all put under his godfather and paternal grandmother's last name."

"So what exactly does this mean?"

"It means for all intents and purposes, Bobby adopted you shortly after John was killed making that deal. When you showed signs of having magic, that meant he took on responsibility as the head of the Black family since it now legally has more than two members. It also means that once you really start to exorcise your magical core, you might unlock some of the Black family's magic like Teddy's ability to change his features. But that's generally passed on from parent to child directly."

"Wait...so Bobby became our dad in a legal sense a few days after John died?" said Sam, focusing more on that bit than the magic.

"He more than adopted you. Are you aware that his will was changed soon after your father started leaving you with him for long periods of time to make it so that if anything happened to him you two would inherit the bulk of the gold he has left, except for a good sum of it going to Teddy because he's the only other living Black member left?" said Castiel.

Dean's eyes doubled in size.

Bobby had, as a joke, shown Dean _exactly_ how much he had in his bank account. Dean had never expected to see that much money in his life, unless he hit the lottery fifty times over at it's height or something.

Bobby could retire and live off the interest alone if he wanted.

Sam hadn't been interested, but he could tell from Dean's expression that it was more than he thought.

"How bad?" he asked his brother.

"Trust me, if you had seen the account information you'd have bug eyes too," said Dean.

"It couldn't have been that much..." started Sam, but the two angels shook their head.

"Bobby inherited all of the Black, Peverell, Potter, Malfoy, and Slytherin vaults. One alone would be a large fortune, but all together he became the richest man in Europe, if not the Americas as well when he moved here. Combine that with the lands and titles he has under his name shortly after being knighted by the Queen herself, and he wouldn't have to work a day in his life," said Cas.

"Not to mention the vaults he got from the 'right of conquest' laws for ending several minor pure blood lines when he started to clear out all the Death Eaters in Europe, despite the fact that it made him quite unpopular with the magicals at the time."

Sam looked at Dean.

"My jaw dropped long after I realized that the numbers went past eleven digits...and that was before the dot that shows the change," said Dean.

Sam's eyes widened.

"Seriously?"

Dean nodded.

"Holy shit."

"Now do you see how much you two mean to him? He wanted to make sure you were able to handle him being gone without having to resort to credit card scams all the time," said Cassie.

Dean snorted. With how much Bobby had in his account, he could _buy_ the card companies they scammed and have enough change left over to get a castle fully furnished with satellite TV.

* * *

Bobby was exhausted while he tried to get out of a town that had some seriously weird demon signs in it.

What they found wasn't one demon, but a whole damn pack of the things.

So imagine his surprise when an entire brigade showed up and 'exorcised' the demons.

Bobby's first question was "Why on earth did you just tell them that they breed with the mouth of a goat? All you're doing is pissing them off!"

"What?"

"That 'exorcism' of yours is just a fancier way of saying in angel-speak that 'you breed with the mouth of a goat'. What? I speak thirteen dead languages, one of them is Enochian," said Bobby.

_(**A/N: **at the start of season four, Bobby mentions he has writing that is so old that it's in cuneiform. It's a reasonable assumption he can speak several dead languages.)_

Bobby was taken to the church, noting that at least they had the demon's trap right. He went over their protections, noting them as he went.

"Well the trap is right at least, and you've salted the windows and reinforced them with iron. The one thing that baffles me is that exorcism of yours. Who on earth gave you something to piss the demons off? At some point they'll figure out it's not an angel taunting them and they'll be pissed as hell," said Bobby.

That was when the priest brought in his daughter, who he claimed to be a prophet.

Bobby's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Prophet, eh? Last time I checked, there can only be _one_ prophet of god at a time, and the current one is still alive. What's more, angels can't talk to humans unless they take on human form. Trying to talk otherwise leads to people going insane from hearing an angel's true voice," said Bobby.

The girl looked nervous.

"There is, however, another reason. About how long have these demon attacks been going on?"

"Nearly four months now."

Bobby nodded. That put it right around the time Lucifer was set loose and he finally told his sons the truth about who he was.

"Right. I think I know how to stop the demon attacks and let you guys free of this mess. But it would be better to do it outside... I don't want to accidentally break the holy ground when I do this. Everybody out."

It took them two minutes to get past the barrier, and three seconds for Bobby to hit the Whore of Babylon with a heart exploding spell. Because of who he was, it was automatically laced with the energy that would make her death stick. She collapsed on the spot.

Bobby then took a megaphone had stashed somewhere and shouted something in real Enochian, not the bastardized version these idiots used.

"_Attention all demons! This is Death speaking! Vacate the town or I swear I will purify your souls and send you straight to deal with those asshole angels in heaven! You have exactly two minutes to get the hell out of dodge before I come looking for your sorry asses!"_

There was a massive black cloud that vanished, but not before causing the entire town to be engulfed in shade. Once the two minutes were up, Bobby sent a magical ping.

No more demons.

"There. You're clear of demons and their controller. Word of advice, demon hunting isn't nearly as easy as that twit made it for you. More often than not they have hellhounds and they are infinitely harder to kill since you can't exorcise them."

"What do we do now?"

"Move on. Try to recover from this mess. If you want to become a hunter full time I can leave a number you can contact me at... I can at least point you lot in the right direction."

* * *

Bobby was half asleep. He had joined Dean and given Sam some quality time learning Enochian with Gabriel by switching places...thank god for polyjuice.

The second he saw Dean starting to go to a hotel in the middle of nowhere, he took one look at the name and damn near grabbed the steering wheel.

"Sammy, what the hell?!"

Bobby snorted and didn't bother taking the extra shot of polyjuice. A few minutes later Dean's jaw dropped as the potion wore off revealing Bobby.

"What..."

"We're going to have a _long_ session on how to take queues to see if the person really is who you think they are...and how to check for potions. Sam's been with Gabriel for two days now."

"So why did you grab the steering wheel?" asked Dean defensively.

"The name alone doesn't scream _trap_ to you?" said Bobby sarcastically.

The hotel was called the Elysian Fields. That alone told Bobby that going in was a very, very bad idea. And the rain storm was magicked..he could smell it in the air.

"What's so bad about it?"

"The Elysian Fields? Who the hell would be stupid enough to name a hotel after the place where the Greek heroes who didn't screw up were laid to rest? It's like hanging a sign to invite reapers for god's sake!"

"Seriously?"

"In Greek mythology the place people wanted to go when they died was the Elysian Fields. So a hotel in the middle of nowhere during a magical storm named after a place where the dead went to go to rest? I'm not buying it," said Bobby flatly.

"This storm is magical?"

"It reeks of it," said Bobby.

"Can you make it so I can see where I'm going?"

Bobby cast a giant bubble around the car, one that wouldn't impede Dean's sight. He left the parking lot and they tried to keep driving.

Fifteen minutes and passing by the same hotel for the third time, Bobby swore.

"Dammit...must have gotten someone who knew what they were doing to make a loop. They really must want you and Sam. So how about we prank the shit out of them and find out what?" said Bobby.

He was a Marauder through and through. He just didn't have reason to show it much with how crappy his life had turned out.

"How?"

"They want 'Sam' and Dean, so why not give it to them? Just give me a few minutes for this potion to kick in again and we'll get to the bottom of this."

Bobby also sent a mental prayer to Gabriel about what was going on and that he had it handled. Gabriel sent a reply back...but he wasn't happy.

Bobby switched the vial of blood the 'receptionist' had just taken with Tabasco sauce. It would pass an initial inspection. Seeing the food and sensing people in the freezer, he had a bad feeling about this.

The minute they were in the room, he cursed in four dead languages and once in English. Dean was impressed.

"So?"

"Meeting of the gods. Bloody hell, I bet Kali's behind it too. I caught her signature in the dining room and since I felt people in the freezer I'm betting one of the cannibal gods set up the dinner plan. What I want to know is why the hell they wanted you and Sam bad enough to try and pull a reverse blood ward spell on you."

* * *

Three hours and another switching spell later, Bobby had his answer.

"For the love of... I thought gods were supposed to be smarter than humans, you're more idiotic than Loki!" said 'Sam'.

Every god there looked suitably offended. Bobby inwardly smirked, time to really piss them off before he brought out the big guns and made them shit themselves.

"First off was that rather poor attempt to siphon our blood for that reverse blood ward. Hermes, I expected better from a god of thievery," said Bobby mockingly.

Hermes looked highly offended by that.

"And Kali, you put far too much magic in that storm and the loop was a dead give away. For shame."

The goddess looked really pissed now.

"And which one of you fools came up with the name? Any hunter who's studied Greek mythology would have picked up on the fact this was a trap from the start!"

Oh...their eyes were twitching now. Dean subtly hid behind Bobby when he felt the rising amount of pissed off gods glaring at them.

Then he went for the clincher.

"And really, what can you expect from pagan idiots who haven't been worshiped in centuries aside from Ganesh over here?"

"Silence, Vessel," hissed Kali, her rage causing her to start sparking flames. She was really pissed now.

"No. You idiots screwed the pooch big this time, and you picked the wrong targets to try and trap. Not only did you piss off the Winchesters, you also pissed off their father."

"John Winchester is in hell. Everyone knows that."

"I'm referring to their other father. The one that actually gave a crap about them. Me," said Bobby, right as the polyjuice wore off.

Seeing Kali's face turn from rage to absolute fear, she started backing into the wall in terror.

"Who is he?" demanded Odin.

"Harry Potter. Death's Equal," she said in horror.

"Not anymore. My name is Robert Singer-Black, and I have claimed the Winchesters as my sons. Death is not happy with Lucifer being out, so he's using me as the equalizer for the humans. Angels can stuff their swords up their arse for all I care," said Bobby. The minute he summoned Death's scythe, the gods took note.

They had annoyed someone infinitely more powerful than them. If they made a wrong move they were screwed.

"Now, what the hell were you thinking trying to lure Lucifer here with his vessel?" asked Bobby. That had been the stupidest thing he had heard all damn night.

"We know what Loki really is," stammered Kali.

"Like it was really hard after that idiot got drunk and told a human who wrote a movie just to spread the word without getting smited," said Bobby rolling his eyes.

"We would have taken his sword and used it on Lucifer," said Baldur.

"Wrong. Killing Loki would have heaven, myself and quite a few others very pissed off at you, not to mention Lucifer wouldn't hesitate to kill you all. This is an arch angel and he's been around longer than any of you. He probably taught Loki back when he was still in heaven," said Bobby flatly.

Seeing them look at him oddly, Bobby sighed.

"Drop the loop spell. And let those people out. If I hear you tried this stunt again I will hunt you down and send you to your respective afterlives," said Bobby.


	8. Chapter 8

The moment Adam was resurrected, Bobby shot out of his bed with a loud curse. He had been taking a nap after the headache he had dealing with Gabriel's yelling at him for being so damn reckless around the likes of Kali and the others.

Recently though, Bobby had been having nightmares...or what some might call nightmares.

He called them flashbacks of his own personal hell.

The angels (Castiel, Cassie and Gabriel) were aware that for some bizarre reason, he had been reliving his past life as Harry for the last two weeks...and it was starting to get to him.

It wasn't Death doing it... Death was in the Caribbean enjoying a much needed vacation. It wasn't Pestilence, the lone Horsemen left to deal with. Pestilence knew that Death would take it personal if he interfered with his brother's equal, never mind what Bobby would do to him if he caught the bastard.

Which left one avenue that could be considered.

Lucifer.

It wasn't inconceivable that the fallen angel would try to use Bobby's past against him. The issue was that the brothers didn't have any dream root to go into Bobby's head and help him out again.

* * *

Castiel arrived later with a not-so-happy Adam Winchester. Though Bobby disliked the brat immediately. Adam clearly took more after his father than Dean had.

"Necromancy... Which angel sent you down, and don't lie," asked Bobby gruffly, clutching his coffee cup like a lifeline.

"Zachariah. He said that he needed me to act as Micheal's vessel," said Adam. There was something about Bobby's eyes that freaked him out into telling the truth.

"Bullshit. There can only be one arch angel vessel at a time, and that's Dean. You're more like a cheap replacement since those feathered morons couldn't break these two idjits. No offense," said Bobby to Gabriel.

"None taken. I went pagan, remember?" said Gabriel amused.

"And we were disconnected," said Castiel.

Cassie however was seriously considering tying himself to Bobby. While being an angel of the lord was great, being an angel of death might be easier for someone like himself who had delved too deeply into the darker side of humanity and barely come out alive. Plus it would help him regain his Grace much faster.

Adam stared at Bobby with confusion.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the one who told Zachariah to keep his damn hands off the Winchesters. I should have known he would try to use you eventually to draw Dean out. Though this goes against my order to leave the idjits alone," said Bobby growling.

"Wait, if you told him to leave the brothers alone..." said Gabriel.

"He's going to be one dead seraph if he shows up on Earth. I explicitly stated that the Winchesters were under _my_ protection, and that includes their half-brother," said Bobby, "Much as I would like it otherwise."

"Who are you?" said Adam, disliking how he had added that last bit.

"I'm Death, or to be more precise the 'Acting' Death. I'm the one that the Reapers answer to since the real one is on vacation rather than deal with some pissy arch angel having a bitch fest because he didn't like the new kid in the family," said Bobby.

Gabriel didn't hide his guffaw of laughter from Bobby's rather blunt description of what Lucifer was.

A few hours and a much needed sleep later (Bobby had taken a shot of dreamless sleep) and he was ready to deal with the idiots of heaven.

* * *

She smiled. She was glad that the little wolf had escaped his captors and found his family again, but there was a danger there. The tall one with the brown eyes would need training and help if he was to be of any real use to his brother and father. The boy was a natural Seer, just like her, but his power had been perverted by that blasted demon.

At least Bobby wouldn't shoot her on sight. She was one of the few who hadn't turned on him before he left.

Adam was taken, but not before Bobby did something to him.

What the youngest Winchester wasn't aware was that Bobby had left a few sigils in his ribs not to keep him from being seen by angels (like Castiel had for the boys) but so that demons could find the idiot easily. Like someone shining a beacon in the night screaming 'here I am, kill me!'.

Before they could go and get the idiot, there was a knock on the door.

Outside was a woman, about Bobby's real age with pale blue eyes and the lightest shade of blond hair they had ever seen. It was almost white.

"Luna?" said Bobby in surprise. Teddy took one look at the woman and tackled her into a hug.

"Aunt Luna!" he squealed.

"Bobby, who is this?" asked Dean.

"Luna Lovegood. Natural Seer and an old friend. How did you find me?" asked Bobby.

"I have always known where to find Death's Equal, Bobby Singer. But I respected your wish to be left alone by our world. I am sorry about what happened to your wife."

"Come on in. What brings the only naturally born Seer into my house?"

"He (Luna points at Sam specifically) needs training. That demon nearly wrecked the pathways with her so called special training and tricking him into becoming a demon-blood addict. If something isn't done soon his ability could be wasted. Besides, I missed the little Wolf," said Luna, patting Teddy's head fondly. The half-werewolf hugged her tighter.

She was the only one outside of Bobby who had been kind to him.

"Wait... I thought Sammy got those visions from the demon's blood?" said Dean.

Luna shook her head.

"Sam is a natural Seer, like me. Azazel might have amplified it with his blood, but Sam can see things no one else can if trained properly. Beside...the Fae want to help the Acting Death deal with Lucifer before he finds a way to get into their realms. Maeve, Titania and Oberon were most displeased when the angels allowed him out."

"I always knew there was something different about the creatures you spoke about," snorted Bobby.

Bobby looked irritated when Micheal took Adam by force. On the plus side, he did deliver the punishment on Zachariah for disobeying his direct order...besides the angel was an asshole.

Luna had taken Sam aside and started his real training to keep his gift of being able to See into the future from being lost. She had to be a better teacher than Trelawny.

* * *

It had been a week, and right as they were about to find Pestilence, Europe reared it's ugly head once more. Fifty Aurors in bright red robes appeared in the salvage yard, all ready to capture or kill Bobby.

What they found was a slaughter. Bobby, Dean and Sam all took careful aim and fired. The sound of guns and the smell of gunpowder filled the air, followed by the distinct cry of pain as the auror's found themselves without hands as the sharpshooters aimed for their wand hands.

When the last shot rang out, Bobby was breathing hard. He had been summoning ammo to each of the boys while he aimed, so that they didn't run out in the middle of the fight.

The aurors were all carried off to a jail cell, after being given a quick triage to insure they wouldn't bleed out.

After the incident when Death was forced to use necromancy, the sheriff was much more inclined to believe Bobby's story of magic and the like. They fact they had barged in didn't have any passports and were clearly from 'across the pond' as Bobby put it, meant that she could legally arrest them and have them in jail for some time.

Long enough for Bobby to move everyone to the bunker at any rate. Clearly his home was no longer safe except for short term stays.

* * *

Dean and Sam were worried. Bobby had been hitting the sleep potions more than they did, and they wanted to know why.

Gabriel told them.

"We think Lucifer or someone from Europe is trying to drive Bobby off the deep end by forcing him to relive his life as Harry. Most of those memories were rather painful the first time around."

"Damn it... and we have no idea where to get dream root," said Dean, running his hand through his hair in frustration.

"You don't need dream root. With your connection, you might be able to go into his dreams without it and drag him back from the brink. Remember, he tied his humanity directly to you and Sam," Castiel reminded him.

"How?" asked Sam. He wanted to help Bobby.

"First we're going to keep Bobby from drinking those potions. Then all we have to do is put you into a sleep when his magic starts to spike," said Gabriel.

Sam and Dean were leaning against each other in the room that Bobby had claimed. Gabriel had been nice enough to snap up some recliners so they wouldn't have a crick in their back.

Bobby's magic spiked thirty minutes into the REM cycle, indicating that something was interfering with his sleep from outside. The two brothers were put to sleep by Cassie, and within seconds they found themselves in Bobby's dream.

Though it felt more like a nightmare.

* * *

_Bobby's memory/nightmare..._

Dean heard crying under the stairs. The house was horrifyingly bland, and had many, many pictures of something he could only assume was a pig in a wig. Closer inspection revealed that it was a kid, though why any parent would let the boy get that fat he had no idea.

It was Sam who found the crying child and it took Dean ten seconds to realize that it was a seven-year-old Bobby.

The bright green eyes were dim with pain from multiple bruises and what was clearly a broken arm. There was a weird lightning-shaped scar on his head. The hair was much shorter than they remembered, but it was still the same face they had grown used to over the past couple of months.

Dean didn't hesitate. He knew this was the man he called father, and someone was clearly trying to break him by doing this.

He hugged the kid, and to his surprise the green-eyed child responded.

When the kid's crying stopped, the dream suddenly shifted.

The boy had grown, and was at least twelve. Sam and Dean felt the glares and suspicion leveled at the young wizard. They spoke cruel things behind his back because he could speak to snakes.

Sam and Dean glared at these children. They had nothing against snakes, but it was clear that their words cut the boy deep, though he hid it well.

The brothers had lived with Bobby for years, growing up. They could see the pain in his eyes clear as day.

They put their hands on his shoulder, comforting. Young Bobby didn't turn, but he did relax. Following him into the cave, they came face-to-face with a _massive_ snake. Just looking at it gave them shivers.

Gabriel appeared then, placing a shield over them to keep them from being affected second-hand from the basilisk's deadly gaze. Even in a memory, those eyes were powerful.

Sam and Dean stood by the child's side, and without warning the scene shifted.

This time they were in what they could only assume was the great hall. Bobby had longer hair than before, but there was no mistaking that he was still in pain.

Seeing the entire school turn on him, not believing him, hurt the brothers. Bobby never wanted to be in this tournament, but they forced him anyway.

Without warning, Bobby woke up, dragging them out.

"What in the hell do you two idjits think you're doing?" he yelled.

Dean woke up first.

"We're trying to help."

"Help? The last thing I want is for you two to get trapped in my memories!" shouted Bobby.

"Tough luck. If we don't stop the bad memories from overwhelming you, then _we're_ the ones who pay the price," snapped Gabriel.

"I take it that I have no say in this?" said Bobby glaring at the arch angel.

"Not if you want to sleep without potions again, no."

"Fine. But you two are going to go through the memories properly and not through the dream sequence. Dreams would only make them worse, since they can shift without warning...something _you_ should have known, Gabriel!" barked Bobby. He only called the arch angel by his real name when he was pissed.

Sam and Dean relived Bobby's memories as Harry from the earliest. But it was the last days that had them pissed.

* * *

_Flashback..._

Harry was tired. Everyone was pressuring him to marry Ginny, but in all honestly he had lost any spark for her years ago. Ever since he overheard her talking about him to Luna, who seemed distinctly unhappy with her friend, he had lost any interest in her.

Ginny didn't love him...she loved his money, fame and the power being Lady Potter would give her.

Even Hermione wanted him to marry Ginny and to get on with his life.

Harry sighed. Head Auror had seemed like a dream job, but then he found out what hell was really like.

They didn't care about his skills...they had turned him into their own pet Savior to parade around Diagon and fill out endless paperwork.

He wondered what it said about him that he willingly hide behind the endless stream of boring paperwork to avoid even looking at his so-called fiancee.

Finally, at the end of the day he went out to a local muggle pub to escape even going near the magicals. He hated his own people...they always seemed to want something from him.

So when a man challenged him to a round of poker, Harry went along unaware of who the man was or what his ability could do.

When Harry folded, tired of playing, he was a little surprised when he felt himself growing older.

He cursed and finally realized what happened.

"Dammit... You're Patrick aren't you?" he said irritated. How the hell had he gotten roped into the Irishman's game without realizing who he was?!

"And you're Harry Potter. So what?"

"How long does this last?" asked Harry tiredly. He was sick of England and sick of magicals. He needed a break before he went on a killing spree.

"Unless you can beat me in a game, it can't be reversed," said Patrick.

Harry took a long look at his new face. His friends wouldn't recognize him unless he said something...and then an idea struck.

If they didn't recognize him, they wouldn't try to stop him if he were to leave England and not come back. There was nothing for him here, aside from Teddy who was safe with his grandmother and Luna.

He could be free of this living nightmare if he took a chance.

"So mate, you gonna try to win back those years?" asked Patrick, expecting him to say yes. He could tell that Harry hadn't really been paying any attention to his cards and had just been playing along.

"Perhaps later. Should be interesting to see how this works out," said Harry.

A few days later, Harry left Gringotts feeling lighter than he had in years.

He was leaving England far behind. Thanks to the fact Patrick had stolen 25 of his years, only the goblins had known who he was.

Even after Dumbledore's death, Harry had noted his friends watching his every move...they just didn't have any one to report to now.

So they had no idea Harry had just started a transfer to a series of dummy accounts all the way to America under a new name.

He didn't know why, but the name Robert Singer just felt right.

It wasn't until he was about to leave that Hermione tracked him down.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Harry? Are you going to just leave Ginny like that, all alone?"

"She's young, she can find someone new to fall for. I've had enough _Granger_. I can't stand you people anymore. All you've ever done to me is take and take without giving me a damn thing in return."

"What about the gold? The fame? All that glory?" said Hermione.

"Gold? Gold doesn't buy me what I've always wanted. Fame? I've never wanted the fame I _have_ from this damn scar. And glory? What does glory give you aside from unwanted attention? So no, England has never given me a damn thing I've wanted. I'm leaving and not coming back," said Harry flatly.

"And what about Ginny? She's been planning this wedding for months," said Hermione.

"Who cares about Ginny? She certainly doesn't give a damn about me... I've heard her talk Granger...she's only in it for the gold and the power being my wife would give her. I refuse to marry out of duty instead of love and there's not a damn thing I will do otherwise."

Hermione realized there was nothing she could do to stop him. If she tried to hex him, he would fight her every step of the way. They had been through too much for her to do that...and she wasn't an idiot like Ron.

Harry boarded his plane without once looking back. When he reached America Harry Potter died and Robert Singer took his place.

Eventually he married Karen, though the demon attack offered him the one thing he had been searching for since the war ended.

A purpose in life. Then everything changed when he first met John Winchester and his sons.

Sam and Dean left the memory. They had no idea just how worn down Bobby had been before he became Bobby.

They thought their father had seemed tired acting as Death...this was nothing compared to how he had been before he left England far behind.


End file.
